The telephone industry is currently composed of several major telephone service providers which each offering a variety of pricing plans and structures. The price charged a paying party for a toll telephone call may depend upon a variety of factors, including the time of the day, the day of the week, the called party's service provider in relation to the caller, where the caller is calling from, how frequently the called party is called, arrangements for payment of the toll telephone call, whether operator assistance was rendered, and other relevant pricing factors.
In the prior art, the party to the toll telephone call responsible for payment of the toll charge, whether it be the caller or the called party, has no means of requesting and then immediately receiving an audio or data reading of his/her billing record either during the toll telephone call itself or following completion of the toll telephone call. A party interested in such billing information must wait to receive a billing statement from the telephone service provider or contact the billing office of the telephone service provider following completion of the toll telephone call in order to obtain the billing information. At any rate, the party paying for the toll telephone call currently does, not have the means of requesting and then immediately receiving desired billing information either during a toll telephone call or upon completion of the toll telephone call.
There is thus an unmet need in the art for a party to a toll telephone call who is authorized to receive toll information to be able to request and then to immediately receive requested billing information. This need exists both during an on-going toll telephone call and just after a toll telephone call has been completed. The need for immediate receipt of billing information about the toll telephone call has become more important with the recent proliferation of individual pricing plans and structures that are currently available from competing telephone service providers. With so many pricing structures from which to chose, it is desirable that a paying party to a toll telephone call be able to easily and readily monitor the toll charges levied by the telephone service provider selected to provide the toll telephone service.